Thursday, December 1, 2016

To Keep Jobs From Moving to Mexico Mike Pence Granted Carrier a $7 Million Tax Break

During the primaries Donald Trump desperately wanted to win Indiana. And he did. In fact, Ted Cruz's loss to Trump sealed the nomination for the Manhattan billionaire.

Along the way, Trump promised to save jobs. Carrier, a big manufacturer, in February had announced it was planning to move jobs from its Indianapolis plant to Mexico, and its parent company, United Technologies, would also move jobs to Mexico from its Huntington, Indiana plant.

Trump used the threat as a tool, claiming that under a Trump presidency, corporations would be afraid to move manufacturing jobs out of the country.

Last week, after announcing he would do a victory tour of (only) the states he won, Trump looked for something to make him look successful. Carrier was an easy target.

On Thanksgiving Trump announced he was working "hard" to save the 2000 jobs from moving to Mexico.

In the end, Trump – or rather, Indiana governor and vice president-elect, Mike Pence, did the dirty work for him, but Trump today is starting his victory tour, in Indiana, at the Carrier plant.

Trump is bragging that he's saved American jobs, but that's hardly a fair claim.

Indiana taxpayers will literally be paying the salaries of the just under 1000 jobs Carrier promise they would keep in the Hoosier state.

As the details become clear, the degree of "success" becomes clearer, and there's little praise to grant the president-elect.

In total, Carrier and United Technologies will send 1300 Indiana jobs to Mexico. 1100 jobs will stay in Indiana.

Indiana taxpayers are now on the hook for those 1100 salaries.

"Carrier had been planning to shift all of its Indianapolis jobs to Monterrey, Mexico, where workers would earn $3 an hour. The highest-paid Indianapolis employees make $26 an hour and can earn more than $70,000 a year with overtime," the Indy Star reported Wednesday.

"The deal would cover 800 Carrier workers from the Indianapolis furnace plant and an additional 300 research and headquarters positions that weren't slated to go to Mexico, according to another person briefed on the deal," the Journal adds.

In other words, Indiana taxpayers will also be paying the salaries of workers whose jobs weren't even going to be cut.

Remember, Trump is the greatest dealmaker. A great negotiator. The best.

As long as someone else is footing the bill.

UPDATE: If you're doing the math, not all workers make $70,000 a year. The Journal stated, "The deal would cover 800 Carrier workers from the Indianapolis furnace plant and an additional 300 research and headquarters positions that weren't slated to go to Mexico," so that's the foundation for our claim.

However, to be accurate, we're removing the claim the deal will fully cover all the salaries. Nevertheless, Indiana taxpayers are paying a lot of salaries to keep jobs in the state.

UPDATE II:Via ThinkProgress. Trump sang a very different tune back in April, promising not to give a tax break to Carrier, but to TAX Carrier:

UPDATE III:

Here's a chart of the Carrier "deal" versus Obama's auto industry rescue that Fox and the right lashed out at: pic.twitter.com/qHIpG8gecE